Category: astronomy

We are in one of those limited spans of time when the seven major planets are all in our evening sky: they are all eastward from the Sun, as seen from Earth.

See the end note about enlarging illustrations.<$> Arrows through the moving bodies show their movement (against the starry background) from 2 days earlier to 2 days later. Venus is exaggerated 150 times in size, to show its crescent shape. Saturn is exaggerated 150 times in size, to show the current attitude of its rings.

Here are the planets’ elongations (angular distances from the Sun):

MAR JUP URA VEN NEP MER SAT
129  94  76  33  21  14  131  14  13

The situation started on February 9 when Mercury was at superior conjunction – that is, passed behind the Sun. And it will end on March 12 when Saturn is at conjunction, far more distantly behind the Sun. This is made clear in the “Elongation” graph of <I>Astronomical Calendar 2025<$>.

As often, there is media hype. “Skywatchers are in for a treat this week as seven planets will all be briefly visible in the evening sky… This phenomenon, known as a ‘planetary parade’, is a rare sight, and it will be the last time seven planets can be seen simultaneously so well until 2040.”

It is not a “parade” in the sense applied to the array in the morning sky in June 2022, when the planets were also in their order of distance outward from the Sun. This is the more rare phenomenon that we found would not happen again until 2040 and would be even more rare if Uranus and Neptune were included.

It is certainly not a line-up anything like this:

Still, you may catch Mercury and even Saturn before they drop out of sight, and Venus, Jupiter, and Mars should be a lot easier.

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This weblog maintains its right to be about astronomy or anything under the sun.

ILLUSTRATIONS in these posts are made with precision but have to be inserted in another format. You may be able to enlarge them on your monitor.

One way: right-click, and choose ”View image” or ”Open image in new tab”, then enlarge. Or choose ”Copy image”, then put it on your desktop, then open it. On an iPad or phone, use the finger gesture that enlarges (spreading with two fingers, or tapping and dragging with three fingers). Other methods have been suggested, such as dragging the image to the desktop and opening it in other ways.

Sometimes I make improvements or corrections to a post after publishing it.  If you click on the title, rather than on ‘Read more’, I think you are sure to see the latest version. Or, if you click ‘Refresh’ or press function key 5, you’ll see the latest version.